A Republican elections commissioner for upstate Rensselaer County in New York was arrested Tuesday on charges he unlawfully used the names and dates of birth of voters to fraudulently apply for absentee ballots, the Daily Beast reports.
Court documents allege Jason Schofield, 42, applied for absentee ballots in the names of people who had no interest in voting in 2021 or who did not request absentee ballots. They did not know Schofield was using their personal information. “In some of these instances, according to the indictment, Schofield also took possession of the absentee ballots issued to these voters, brought the ballots to the voters, and had the voters sign absentee ballot envelopes but not actually vote,” a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Albany read. “This allowed Schofield or another person to cast votes in these voters’ names, in Rensselaer County’s primary and general elections held in 2021.” Schofield was ordered released on his own recognizance pending trial. Schofield faces as much as five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of post-imprisonment supervised release of up to three years on each of the 12 counts he faces. Schofield “maintains his innocence,” his lawyer Danielle Neroni told the New York Daily News. Read more at U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of New York.
Of course it’s the Republican that gets caught and has to pay the price but the Democrats go scott free.
In response to the U.S. attorney’s office in Albany NY to subvert the election process in upstate Rensselaer County by falsely claiming absentee-ballot election fraud on the part of Rensselaer County resident, Mr. Jason Schofield, and by subsequently provoking the masses to falsely malign Mr. Schofield, the Justice Dept. on Wednesday issued 40 subpoenas to various accomplices of the US Attorney in Albany, and also confiscated the phones of several of her acquaintances.
“The US Attorney in Albany was trying to do great harm to our election process by falsely maligning the integrity of Mr. Schofield and accusing him of absentee-ballot fraud,” the Justice Department said in a statement issued on Wednesday.”
“Efforts by the US Attorney in Albany to incite the masses against Mr. Schofield and subvert our election system can not go unanswered,” the DOJ statement added. “And we will take all necessary steps to protect out election process from those who wish to turn this country into a tyrannical circus.”